Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Yesterday must have been one of them for John Key. Over on TV3, his political rival (no, not Bill English) is announcing the opening of FTA negotiations with the USA and basking in the knowledge that this political legacy will be hers. Over on TV1, Key is attempting to explain why he lied to Parliament about the extent of his shareholding in TranzRail. He must have given the cat a good kick when he got home.

Now, the above may appear to be gloating, and what the hell, it is - I find neither Key nor the National Party sympathetic figures. I can't say I'm that chuffed about yesterday's outcomes, though.

The thing is, I may not like National but the current govt is way past its use-by date and National/ACT are the only reasonable contenders to replace it. Clark and her team are displaying all the born-to-rule arrogance and who-gives-a-shit incompetence of people who've been in power too long. I think they did a good job, but after 9 years it's time to move on and give the righties a turn. The Yanks are wise to only allow their presidents 8 years in the job - we should have something similar.

On that basis, the sight of Key pissing all over his own leg at the same time as Clark is announcing a huge success really isn't good. Pull yourself together, mate - you're making exactly the same mistake Clark made when she lied about knowing of Glenn's donation to Winston First, the same mistake Brash made when he lied about National's involvement with the Brethren. That kind of panic can have nasty effects on your poll results. Front up, don't try to weasel out of it or pretend it's a dirty distraction by your opponents - that just chips away your support.

29 comments:

I agree PM.At least Key fronted up in a moment rather than dragging on the process like Winston did.National better own up to any sins they may have committed.Liarbour will only find out.Government has the resources, the larger research team and all those comms staff.It has a compliant media too.Fran Mold must have been wetting her nickers at the thought of the story.In the end it was no big deal, but it does chip away on the trust issue.And that's what did it for Brash too.Its not the 'crime' that does it but covering it up, as they say.

1. Trading in shares in a company while seeking information about it in the House, without disclosing a financial interest.

2. Taking the Finance Minister to the Ombudsman for failing to hand over commercially sensitive information about the company, again without disclosing a financial interest.

3. Meeting potential foreign investors in the company in your role as MP and talking up the prospects for that investment, again without disclosing a financial interest.

That ain't a beat-up. That's time to throw yourself on the mercy of the public, admit you were stupid, stress that you made no financial gain from the dealing and count on that taking any sting out of it.

PM, is right and the timing by labour was very good. Perhaps the virgin queen has not lost all her powers of timing.Plus, who is marking this post as a 1.For fucks sake, are some of you so fucking stupid that you cannot at least acknowledge a post is thoughtful and well written if it does not follow your inch wide view of the world.

Key was caught and tried to correct it. He looked like a kid who was sprung with his hand in the lolly jar. Your description of him pissing all over his leg, nails it.All he had to do was say how many shares he had and then asked whether there was anything wrong with owning that many shares. He could have turned it around by saying something like"not bad for a kid from a state house" but his first instinct was to downplay the number of shares.It is a sad reflection on our society that he felt that was necessary.

Big ups for your honesty Milt. Key looked shabby last night, but as the PM herself would say, "It's not a hanging offence". But as others have noted, if there are any more skeletons in the Nats' closets, they should be sorted out quick-smart.

I agree with PM, front up and I'm sure the results will be positive (or at least better than what might happen if he ducks and dives)

As an aside, isn’t it good to see a political figure that is not so contrived and calculating and who actually gets caught out in such a human way?

We all have to admit that HEC has never been caught this way even though she is the most dishonest corrupt Prime Ministers of our lifetime.

Key clearly hasn’t mastered the art of staring straight faced at a camera or reporter and speaking harsh firm double speak that avoids or side tracks the issue while sailing dangerously through the waters of untruth.

He also isn’t a domineering bullying type so reporters that cower in front of HEC suddenly find their nuts when confronted by a ‘nice guy’.

Maybe it’s that genuine-not perfect-naivety that people like about him?

The public seem to be finding this a refreshing change after the past 9 years

All good points. The only redeeming factor, if any, was that Key fronted up and admitted it. How many months did it take to get Clark on her $800,000 fraud from the last election? And she still denied any wrongdoing.

That is the difference between a Govt in waiting and a Govt in its dying days...

He also isn’t a domineering bullying type so reporters that cower in front of HEC suddenly find their nuts when confronted by a ‘nice guy’.

I laughed out loud at this one - it's so true!

Mind you, Clark wasn't always an intimidating figure for journos herself - give Key enough years in the job being panelbeaten by media specialists and he might yet have journos cowering in front of him.

"Mind you, Clark wasn't always an intimidating figure for journos herself - give Key enough years in the job being panelbeaten by media specialists and he might yet have journos cowering in front of him."

Don't think so, Milt. I can't abide the woman, of course, but she's irrefutably a career political animal with balls.

You guys need to harden up, CactusKate has it right. This is all 5 to 6 years ago, the shares were never in his name and his share-broker controlled things, MichaelBassett summed it all up thismorning in a radio broadcast it ismuch ado about nothing. Mycho Piltis a leftie nobody who rants andraves about his vision from a pinkoperspective

The sad thing is you guys think this makes a difference. Kate's a lawyer, so for her it does make a difference, and for a judge it would also make a difference. For the general run of dumbasses however, the fact the shares were in a trust is just rich people's bullshit - it matters not a rat's ass.

Abstaining or voting Green may put this woman back in. After all, if Jonnie and the Sprites don't live up to (admittedly low) expectations, we only have to suffer them for three years until you can out Goff in...

Big deal. I've read the explanation from Key and it looks like this is all over. Amazing how when someone comes clean and admits a mistake (not a big one IMHO) how much better they look than the liars and deceivers who will never admit ANY wrong doing.

Of course it's all over, you pillock. They made Key look a complete pillock and made it pretty obvious that he lies like any other politician - mission accomplished.

Fist: if you lot can't put National & ACT in by persuading the majority to vote for them, don't blame the failure on me! I'll be looking for a party that voted against S59 repeal, the EFB and the Suppression of Terrorism amendment Bill, won't give tertiary education money to students as election bribes, won't keep coming up with new bureaucracies to tell us what to do, but will keep a strong public service and back workers and unions to close the wage gap with Aus. What are my chances of finding one, do you think?

Right, like that's the path to enlightenment. New Zealand is in decline, you're backing a loser in the New Zealand economy. Still, I commend you for the foresight to know the quickest path to putting the sick puppy that is New Zealand out of its misery.

National opened that wage gap with the ECA. Aussies kept their unions and their high wages, we opted for capital shallowness and low wages. Labour may not have done anything much to close that gap, but Key's planning to give us more of what created the gap in the first place. Still, if your comforting ideology keeps you warm at night, who am I to ridicule it?

Do you people have trouble with English? We had a strong public service before the Families Commission, before the Children's Commissioner, before the Race Relations Conciliator, before whatever bureaucracy they come up with to tell us what we're allowed to eat etc. "Strong" and "growing" are not synonymous.